TWD: Raspberry Blanc-Manger

This week’s TWD was chosen by Susan of Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy: raspberry blanc-manger! I have to confess that I had no idea what blanc-manger was so I was thankful this was one of the recipes which included a photo. The blanc-manger is made with milk, cream and sugar and flavored with ground almonds. Gelatin acts as the thickener. The recipe is actually fairly simple and didn’t require any baking, which was terrific given that it’s been fairly warm here recently. That said, the process was labor intensive for me because I wanted to blanch and remove the skins from all of my almonds before I ground them so the color of my blanc-manger wouldn’t be affected by the brown skins.

I had a bit of trouble unmolding my blanc-manger. Dorie’s recommendation to dip the pan in hot water didn’t work for me so I ran a knife around the sides of the pan a few times and was finally able to release the blanc-manger from the pan. I used frozen raspberries to make the coulis to top the blanc-manger and garnished with fresh blueberries since I was out of fresh raspberries.

I only tried a small bite of the dessert because I’d made plans to give my blanc-manger to my mom. The bite I did try was good – very creamy, though not completely smooth due to the almonds. Dorie likens the blanc-manger to panna cotta but I’ve never tried panna cotta so I can’t compare them. This week’s recipe was a reminder that I really need to expand my horizons when it comes to desserts.

Thanks to Susan for her selection! You can find the recipe on her fantastic site and you can see how the other TWD members fared this week by visiting our site.

That blanc manger is a thing of beauty; I’m taking coulis lessons from YOU! I had panna cotta on Saturday for comparison purposes, but forgot to include in my post. pc is much creamier and softer. I like both, but blanc manger is lighter and more refreshing, imo.

Wow! What a stunning blanc-manger! The blueberries on the raspberry couli are so beautiful. It’s perfect for 4th of July with those colors. I have speckled blac-manger because I used almond flour that contained the almond skins. I was really worried it would look terrible, but it’s not so bad, just a bit speckled.